Commissioner Clyburn Speaks on Need to Reform Lifeline to Bridge the Homework Gap and Digital Divide

This morning, FCC Commissioner Mignon Clyburn spoke at the Schools, Health & Library Broadband (SHLB) Coalition’s fifth annual conference, where she laid out her thoughts on how to address the challenge of the “homework gap” and digital divide. Commissioner Clyburn touted the recent two-part reform of E-rate and reiterated that in the coming funding year, the FCC will approve all Category 1 (broadband) and Category 2 (internal connections) funding requests.

Turning to Lifeline, Commissioner Clyburn repeated her belief that the new E-rate program provides only two legs of the “three-legged stool, where all of the pieces need to be present for success: broadband in school, broadband in the library, and broadband at home.”

Noting that Lifeline “has not fundamentally changed since its creation in 1985,” Commissioner Clyburn argued that broadband should be added the program’s supported services, and appeared to posit that both voice and broadband could be covered by the current monthly support amount of $9.25 per household (seeaccompanying slides to her presentation).

Commissioner Clyburn then reiterated the five principles for further Lifeline reform she first outlined in November 2014:

Minimum service standards

Shifting eligibility determination away from service providers

Eliminating barriers that discourage provider participation (hinting that the ETC designation process should be streamlined for Lifeline)

Using established databases to assist in eligibility determination and administration

Encouraging public-private partnerships to increase adoption

Finally, Commissioner Clyburn cited a Pew study showing that financial burdens prevent many low income Americans from maintaining Internet service on their smartphones.

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Lifeline eligible telecommunications carriers ("ETCs") turn to DWT for our extensive and in-depth experience handling market entry and compliance issues at both the federal and state levels. DWT has a dedicated Lifeline team that lives and breathes the Lifeline program every day. We represent top-10 Lifeline ETCs as well as much smaller firms. We are highly experienced in ETC legal issues, but more importantly, we understand how the legal issues affect your business.